Mark 6:6-40

⁶Jesus was going to towns, he was teaching them about God's word.

^7aAfter that he called his men,

^7che told them, I will send you to people, you will tell them about God. I told you this word. From now on you send evil spirits from people. You go, do not take money or food.

⁹Put on shoes, take only one set of clothes. Leave other clothes behind.

¹⁰Perhaps in some towns a person will say to you, 'Come here, stay a little while with us.' At that time you will stay in his camp in that town.

¹¹Perhaps you will come to other towns, they will ignore you, they will not ask you to stay in their town, they will not listen to God's word. If they do that do not stay in that town. Brush the dust from your shoes. When you do that you will show them God will be angry with them after ignoring his word. Then leave that town.

^12aYes, that is all. Go by twos.”

^12bAfter that they went. As they were going they were telling people, “You have been ignoring God. Leave doing wrong and believe in God!”

¹³They were sending away many evil spirits, they put medicine on many sick people, they were asking God, “Will you make this person well.” After that the sick person became well. God made them well.

³⁰Later Jesus' mob who had been sent out returned to him. They told him they were making people well, they were sending out evil spirits, they were teaching people about God, in that way, in response to Jesus' word.

³¹At that time very many people came to Jesus. They were crowding him from all sides. They did not let Jesus and his men eat. After that Jesus said to his men, “Just we will go to countryside where there are no people. We will rest for a while.”

³²They climbed into a dinghy, they went to where there were no people.

³³Many were watching them, they knew about them, and they knew where Jesus was going. They went quickly around the end of the waterhole to the far side on foot, they were ready waiting for him.

³⁴When Jesus disembarked he saw many ready waiting for him. When he saw them he felt sorry for them. He said to himself, “These people are truly in a bad way, without a boss. They are lost, like sheep without a carer.” For a long he was teaching them about God.

³⁵It became late afternoon. They were still listening to his word. His men said to him, “It is late afternoon. The towns are far away.

³⁶Send these people to the towns so they can get food for themselves.”

³⁷Jesus replied, “You give them food.” His men said to him, “We cannot give them food. We could only get food for those many people with a lot of money. We have only a little money.”

³⁸In reply he said to them, “How much damper do you have? Look.” After looking they said to him, “Five dampers and two small fish.”

³⁹He told his men, “Tell the people to sit down.” They told them to sit down on the grass in groups.

⁴⁰They sat down at his word, here 50 were in a group, over there 100 were in a group. All the others were like that, they were in groups everywhere.